Switching

Hello everyone!

Small issue I would like to get your input on today:  I have a VC composed of two 4500 and two 4200.  I have another VC composed of one 4500 and one 4200.  I have around 300 vlans split in 7 routing instance configured on each VC and they can't be summarized (the guy who did the addressing plan got a piece of my mind.).  Because of that, I would like to have OSPF running to share the routes.   Each VC has a firewall connected to it that has the firewalling and routing between instances duties.  I have created 7 more vlans that are my transport vlans so I don't have to trunk everything.

As of now, I have a trunk with about 90% of my vlans configured on it that is connected to another switch.  All those vlans are correctly being advertised in OSPF.  But, the remaining 10% don't come up because they are not configured on an interface yet.   One of these vlan is going to be my management network.  As such, I won't configure it anywhere other than the management interface me0.  Since the interface isn't connected to anything, I have to configure the vlan ot a physical interface but I hate that thought and the lo0 interface won't accept being configurer with a vlan (it is understandable..).

So...  Any ideas?

Thanks!

Simon

I would use loopback interfaces for the management in your topology.  You can create multiple logical units on the lo0 interface, each with its own IP address, then advertise them into OSPF in each of the respective routing-instances as passive.  Also, you might consider using routed uplink ports with multiple VLAN tags rather than using VLANs and trunk ports for transit networks.  Keeps things a bit cleaner as there is a more clear delineation between L2 and L3 networks.

Ron

Thanks for the answer, it's pretty much what I suspected. I have another appointment with my client this week and I will try that out!

Thanks!